y Andy Brack, editor and publisher | South Carolina legislators should start thinking about voting like people now think about online transactions.
Consider how you bought stuff 20 years ago: You got in your car, went to a store, bought it, lugged it home and stored it away until you used it. It took a long time and there were a lot of steps to make a successful purchase. Then came the Internet.
Commentary by Andy Brack, editor and publisher | This is the time of the political season that an odd dance begins.
Politicians want to present a compelling image so you’ll cast a vote for them. But they often don’t want to give away too much of what they really think in case it gets them in trouble. So they may hedge, waffle or give so much bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo that the questioner falls asleep.
IN THIS ISSUE of Charleston Currents | Sept. 24, 2018
FOCUS: 35th annual MOJA Festival starts Thursday
COMMENTARY, Brack: 17 policy questions for South Carolina candidates
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Charleston RiverDogs
GOOD NEWS: Small grants available to spark your great idea
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
MYSTERY PHOTO: Top of a building
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA: Artist William Halsey
CALENDAR: Sign up to host a Lowcountry On the Table gathering
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | In more ways than one, South Carolina’s fall gubernatorial election will hinge on age.
Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who nabbed a primary runoff victory in an election much closer than expected, is 71. His Democratic opponent, longtime state Rep. James Smith of Columbia, is a generation younger at age 50.
In the months ahead, expect to hear both talking about experienced leadership, but in different ways.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | More than 100,000 South Carolinians may have bought a pig in a poke in the recent GOP primary. They voted for Greenville businessman John Warren, a political neophyte who joined the state’s gubernatorial race just a few months back and who reportedly has pumped $3 million of his own money into winning.
He is, if you didn’t know, a Marine. That’s about all we really know about him, as he repeatedly says in television ads.
The term “pig in a poke” is an English idiom from the Middle Ages, a time when meat often was scarce. Tricksters would offer suckling pig in a closed bag to customers. Many times, however, the bag contained the meat of some other animal.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Don’t look for too many surprises Tuesday in what’s been a pretty lame set of gubernatorial primaries.
Unless something surprising happens before the June 12 Republican and Democratic primaries, incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster will lead four challengers and be forced into a runoff while Democratic state Rep. James Smith of Columbia may just muster enough votes to win the party’s nomination outright.
IN THIS ISSUE of Charleston Currents #10.31 | June 11, 2018
FOCUS, Palm: Local business leaders need to step up now
COMMENTARY, Brack: Governor’s races pit establishment versus grenade-throwers
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Morris Financial Concepts
PHOTO ESSAY, Bledsoe: Alaskan cruise
WHAT WE LOVE: Long, languid weeks of summer
FEEDBACK: On Wentworth’s authentic wisdom, ferries and bridges
MYSTERY PHOTO: A gazebo or maybe something else?
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA: South Carolina’s governors
CALENDAR, June 11+: Primary elections, jazz, yoga, more
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | It may be the Year of the Woman in politics around the nation, but not in South Carolina – at least not in races for the S.C. House of Representatives
In 2018, just over 20 percent of major party candidates in the 124 House races are women, according to a Statehouse Report analysis of state election data. Four years ago, there were nine fewer women candidates as 38 women (19.4 percent of candidates) ran for House seats.
Staff reports | You can tell election time is nearing. Just witness all of the political advertising clutter between newsbreaks on the local television stations. This year, there are more competitive elections than in recent memory, likely because of the increasing inter-party sniping and overall partisanship, rants and social divides impacting the state and nation since the 2016 national election.
So we thought it would be helpful to provide you with an early guide to the elections on the ballot in federal, statewide, legislative and county offices in Charleston County so you can figure out who you might want to vote for and which primary you’ll make your picks.
You can see a sample ballot based on where you live by checking your voter registration through SCVotes.org.
IN THIS ISSUE of Charleston Currents #10.28 | May 21, 2018
FOCUS: Elections coming to the Lowcountry
COMMENTARY, Brack: S.C. not so polite to immigrants
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Charleston RiverDogs
MONEY, Morris: Rules have changed on using 529 plans to fund education
WHAT WE LOVE: Tell us about something you love
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
MYSTERY PHOTO: Impressive brick building
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA: Highway 301
CALENDAR, May 21+: Spoleto season gears up for 17 days on May 25
We Can Do Better, South Carolina! (2019) by editor and publisher Andy Brack offers incisive commentaries on the American South, politics, the common good and interesting South Carolina leaders. Available exclusively for Kindle for $7.99. A paperback version will be ready soon. Learn more.
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